''The John and Ken Show'' is an American talk radio show, hosted by ''John Chester Kobylt'' and ''Kenneth Robertson Chiampou''. The show airs Monday thru Friday, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific Time on KFI AM 640, a local Southern California talk radio station. The program is one of the most listened to local talk radio programs in the United States and draws an estimated weekly audience of approximately 1.2 million listeners each week.
History
John Kobylt was born to a working class Catholic family in
Paterson, New Jersey
Paterson ( ) is the largest City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Seton Hall University.
Ken Chiampou, a native of Brentwood, New York, was a
certified public accountant
Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the title of qualified accountants in numerous countries in the English-speaking world. It is generally equivalent to the title of chartered accountant in other English-speaking countries. In the United Sta ...
and had graduated from the University at Buffalo, working in corporate audits for a Big Eight firm.http://www.radioguide.com/djprofile/jkprofile.html Both worked in the Elmira-Corning market in New York state in the late 1980s, Kobylt as a disc jockey at WENY and Chiampou at the station's cross-town rival
WELM
WELM signed on in 1947 as Chemung County's second radio station and the Elmira-Corning, New York market's third. It broadcasts on 1410 kHz. The station uses a three-tower array, broadcasting with 5,000 watts from a single tower until sundown, wh ...
.
Kobylt and Chiampou first worked together in 1988 for a radio station in
Atlantic City, New Jersey
Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020, the city had a population of 38,497.
. According to Kobylt, the show was named "The Odd Couple" by a producer who was the "stupidest man on two legs." Kobylt became program director of WOND. One of their earliest pranks was while they hosted mornings at 103.7 WMGM. They started a food drive for rival 95.1 WAYV's morning DJ Russ Monroe after he was fired a week before Christmas. The pair, as part of the prank, called WAYV live on the air to solicit a donation, which led to a hang up.
In 1990, the pair was offered the afternoon drive slot on the then brand new station
New Jersey 101.5
WKXW (101.5 FM, "New Jersey 101.5") is a commercial FM radio station licensed to serve Trenton, New Jersey. It is owned by Townsquare Media. Its studios and offices are located in Ewing and its broadcast tower, which is shared with WPRB, is l ...
(WKXW-FM) in the state capitol of Trenton, New Jersey. They gained national notoriety for heavily criticizing New Jersey governor Jim Florio for passing the largest state tax hike in United States history immediately after taking office. During this period, their ratings quadrupled to 600,000 listeners. Kobylt criticized Florio for reneging on his promise not to raise taxes.Russakoff, Dale. "The Gov Whose Time Has Come'', '' The Washington Post'', April 12, 1993, Page B1.
A caller, postal worker John Budzash, then suggested the idea of ''Hands Across New Jersey'', a protest that would symbolically cut the state in half. When other callers noted that blocking traffic was illegal, the movement turned into a rally in front of the State House in Trenton.
A State Police officer told Budzash, who reported to the crowd from onstage, that approximately 65,000 people attended the event while another 100,000 people were turned away for lack of parking and because of crowded conditions. It was the largest rally ever held in New Jersey. Kobylt and Chiampou both attended the rally and spoke passionately about Hands Across New Jersey, better government, and lower taxes and they encouraged people to stand up and fight back for a better New Jersey. Florio lost reelection and John and Ken's listenership quadrupled during this period.
Kobylt and Chiampou also campaigned feverishly for the abolition of tolls on the
New Jersey Turnpike
The New Jersey Turnpike (NJTP) is a system of controlled-access highways in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The turnpike is maintained by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA).The Garden State Parkway, although maintained by NJTA, is not consi ...
claiming that cutting government excess expenditures could itself fund highway maintenance. They also lobbied for the opening of HOV lanes to regular traffic.
The pair left WKXW in late 1992 to move to KFI to do their afternoon drive time spot, replacing former Los Angeles Police Department chief Daryl Gates. The hosts began national syndication in 1997, which displeased management at
Cox Communications
Cox Communications, Inc. (also known as Cox Cable and formerly Cox Broadcasting Corporation, Dimension Cable Services and Times-Mirror Cable) is an American digital cable television provider, telecommunications and home automation services. It i ...
, then the owners of the station. At its peak, 125 stations carried the program. On March 19, 1999, ''The John and Ken Show'' was taken off the air at KFI, allegedly by a vice president in Atlanta over the syndication issue, although the spat was referred to as a "contract dispute". In addition, the hosts themselves were more comfortable with dealing with state and local issues.
Kobylt and Chiampou were replaced by syndicated consumer advocate Clark Howard from 3 pm to 4 pm followed by
Karel
Karel may refer to:
People
* Karel (given name)
* Karel (surname)
* Charles Karel Bouley, talk radio personality known on air as Karel
* Christiaan Karel Appel, Dutch painter
Business
* Karel Electronics, a Turkish electronics manufacturer
* Gr ...
and Andrew, the first openly gay couple in weekday talk radio in the country. Kobylt and Chiampou publicly referred to them as " Siegfried and Roy", and constantly berated the show for its low quality and lower ratings compared with their own show. On July 1, 1999, ''The John and Ken Show'' was reborn as a morning drive talk show on crosstown competitor KABC. The morning show was short-lived as they kept their afternoon show style and brought it to the mornings. Kobylt and Chiampou also had various stunts, one of which got them in trouble and forced them into attending diversity training, which they later said they resented taking, and disliked the Disney management toning down their banter. Due to low ratings and mutual dissatisfaction between the station and the hosts, KABC dropped the show on October 20, 2000.
''The John and Ken Show'' returned to KFI on May 2, 2001, and the hosts regaled listeners with the behind-the-scene problems at KABC before returning to their normal topics. Since then they have remained as a live program; however, some interviews are pre-recorded and replayed between hours, and at times Kobylt or Chiampou will broadcast from their home studios.
On January 14, 2006, a new version of the show entitled ''John and Ken: Saturdays'' began. The show has been repeated on the weekend from time to time, however, ''J&K: Saturdays'' covers new material that was otherwise omitted during the week. The hosts did not actually show up to the studio live on Saturday but taped the Saturday edition during the week as time permitted. ''J&K Saturdays'' was syndicated to other stations. The Saturday show was cancelled in September 2009 due to an expansion in their weekday time slot from the cancellation of
Dr. Laura Schlessinger
Laura Catherine Schlessinger (born January 16, 1947) is an American talk radio host and author. ''The Dr. Laura Program'', heard weekdays for three hours on Sirius XM Radio, consists mainly of her responses to callers' requests for personal adv ...
's program. With the hiring of Bill Carroll in February 2010, the program reverted to its 3 p.m.-7 p.m. slot.
On March 4, 2006, Kobylt and Chiampou won the ''
Radio & Records
''Radio & Records'' (''R&R'') was a trade publication providing news and airplay information for the radio and music industries. It started as an independent trade from 1973 to 2006 until VNU Media took over in 2006 and became a relaunched sister ...
News/Talk Local Personality of the Year'' award, sharing the honor with KGO radio host
Ronn Owens Ronn Owens (born Ronald Lowenstein on October 17, 1945, in New York City), is the host of ''The Ronn Owens Report'', a ten-minute weekday program airing on KGO in San Francisco.
Career
Owens began his career in broadcasting in 1968 after graduatin ...
Michael D. Brown
Michael DeWayne Brown (born November 8, 1954) is an American attorney and former government official who served as the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from 2003 to 2005. He joined FEMA as general counsel in 2001 an ...
, and
Armando Garcia Armando may refer to:
* Armando (given name)
* Armando (artist) (1929–2018), the name used by Dutch artist Herman Dirk van Dodeweerd
* Armando (producer)
Armando Gallop (sometimes written as Armando Gallup) (February 12, 1970 – December 17, ...
for providing the material that made the program possible. They were also nominated for the 2006
National Association of Broadcasters
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a trade association and lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasters in the United States. The NAB represents more than ...
Marconi Award.
On September 10, 2009, ''The John and Ken Show'' started simulcasting the 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. portion of the show on San Francisco, California's KNEW (AM)-910. In the opening of the 3 p.m. hour, Kobylt welcomed the new listeners to the show, and promised the old listeners that the format would not change, despite the newly expanded audience. In July 2010, the program was replaced with John Gibson.
On January 2, 2013, John and Ken began hosting on KFI sister station, WOR in New York City, from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. The first hour, from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. was simulcast from the KFI show, while the 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. hour is live and local for New York City. In December 2013, as part of a revamp, John and Ken ceased to air on WOR. The show moved from its traditional 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. time slot to 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. as part of a station revamp.
Kobylt's wife, Deborah Zara, is a journalist and podcast host, and former TV news correspondent. Chiampou is unmarried, with no children.
Political and social activism
In 2003, Kobylt and Chiampou were instrumental in the
recall
Recall may refer to:
* Recall (bugle call), a signal to stop
* Recall (information retrieval), a statistical measure
* ''ReCALL'' (journal), an academic journal about computer-assisted language learning
* Recall (memory)
* ''Recall'' (Overwatch ...
of California Governor
Gray Davis
Joseph Graham "Gray" Davis Jr. (born December 26, 1942) is an American attorney and former politician who served as the 37th governor of California from 1999 to 2003. In 2003, only a few months into his second term, Davis was recalled and remov ...
. Davis, who was derisively called '' Gumby'' on the show for his shifting positions on issues, was criticized on a daily basis for the state's budget deficit, signing a bill that would give drivers' licenses to illegal immigrants, increasing the state's car licensing fee, offering large concessions to state employee labor unions, and for his alleged role in creating the California electricity crisis. The hosts regularly had recall petition gatherers on the air and almost immediately threw their support to
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, film producer, businessman, retired professional bodybuilder and politician who served as the 38th governor of California between 2003 and 2011. ''Time'' ...
when he announced he would run for governor. On October 6, 2003, as part of the fallout from Schwarzenegger's scandals, the hosts read information from the Los Angeles Superior Court, purporting that one of the key accusers against Schwarzenegger had a long criminal record. In fact, the information retrieved was about an individual who had nothing to do with the scandal, and the pointers to the information were provided by a Schwarzenegger assistant. The hosts apologized on October 8, after the election.
Increasingly, after Schwarzenegger's 2006 re-election, Kobylt and Chiampou criticized several of his policies, as Schwarzenegger moved to the center following the election. The tirades culminated with an image of Schwarzenegger's head on a sword after the governor signed the largest state tax increase in United States history (eclipsing the New Jersey increase).
In the run-up to the 2004 elections, their main issue was fighting what they saw as misguided policies of the federal and California state governments to encourage
illegal immigration
Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of the immigration laws of that country or the continued residence without the legal right to live in that country. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upwar ...
. They devised a "competition" that they dubbed ''Political Human Sacrifice'', in which five RepublicanRepresentatives from California were grilled regarding their stance on illegal immigration. The "winner" would be the Representative whom the show's listeners saw as the ''worst'' on illegal immigration restriction; Kobylt and Chiampou would endorse his or her opponent in the general election and urge listeners to vote for the opponent. ''Political Human Sacrifice'' was conducted in a fashion similar to reality television series such as ''
Survivor
Survivor(s) may refer to:
Actual survivors
*
*Last survivors of historical events
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities
* Survivors, characters in the 1997 ''KKnD'' video-game series
* ''The Survivors'', or the ''New Survivors Found ...
''. U.S. Representative David Dreier won the nomination as the "victim" of the "sacrifice." Kobylt and Chiampou also designated a
Democratic
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
Congressman, Joe Baca, to be "sacrificed" in the general election. The comments about Dreier resulted in a complaint to the Federal Elections Commission being filed by the National Republican Congressional Committee, which was rejected by the FEC on March 17, 2006. As it turned out, both Dreier and Baca won reelection, but this apparently has not deterred Kobylt and Chiampou from their activism on this issue. Dreier outspent his opponent by 30 to 1 and won with 54% of the vote versus 43% for his opponent, his lowest percentage in 24 years. On the other hand, Baca appeared to have been unaffected as he garnered 66.4% of the vote in 2004, exactly the same percentage as his 2002 vote.
On May 2, 2005,
KTLA
KTLA (channel 5) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of The CW. It is the largest directly owned property of the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is the seco ...
entertainment reporter Sam Rubin made comments alleging that Kobylt employed an illegal immigrant. Kobylt demanded that Rubin apologize on his program for making this allegation without any basis in fact, and later Kobylt's wife called in to berate Rubin for making the statements. Rubin later apologized and retracted the statements on the
KTLA
KTLA (channel 5) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of The CW. It is the largest directly owned property of the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is the seco ...
5 Morning News, as well as on ''The John & Ken Show''.
Kobylt and Chiampou often do various stunts in regards to their topics. When Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said to a group of illegal alien supporters "We clean your toilets", the duo urged their listeners to send toilet brushes to the mayor's office, of which thousands were received. Other jokes include taking Cardinal Roger Mahony's words of, "So Disappointed," whenever the duo are talking about illegal immigration.
When Long Beach, California residents protested the presence of several paroled
registered sex offenders
A sex offender registry is a system in various countries designed to allow government authorities to keep track of the activities of sex offenders, including those who have completed their criminal sentences. In some jurisdictions, registration i ...
living in one apartment complex, Kobylt and Chiampou hosted a remote broadcast near the complex on February 19, 2008. Fueled by this story, on March 11, 2008, and approved with a required second vote on March 18, 2008, Long Beach City Council members voted 7–0 to enact 18 ordinances heavily restricting the residency and recreational activity of all registered sex offenders.
In September 2011, Kobylt and Chiampou expressed opposition to the California Dream Act, a bill that would extend financial aid to immigrants regardless of their legal status. As part of their opposition, they broadcast the cellular number of a spokesperson for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). The spokesperson received several hundred phone calls from irate listeners, some of which expressed threats towards the spokesperson. CHIRLA said that the phone number was a private number, although the number was listed on the press release for the event. Subsequent to this, CHIRLA has called for the cancellation of ''The John and Ken Show'', which KFI has resisted. Observers such as Gustavo Arellano have said that the show targets Mexicans specifically, in contrast to other KFI hosts such as Bill Handel that make light of all races, a charge the hosts deny. Kobylt apologized on KMEX-TV to Cabrera for the behavior of their listeners.
In February 2012, John and Ken were suspended for making disparaging comments in reference to Whitney Houston. While speculating on
Clive Davis
Clive Jay Davis (born April 4, 1932) is an American record producer, A&R executive, record executive, and lawyer. He has won five Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer, in 2000.
From 1967 to 1 ...
's reaction to Houston's death, Kobylt imagined Davis calling her a 'crack ho' and making other derogatory comments on Houston's alleged drug use and mental state. This caused a stir in media circles and in the African-American community as racially insensitive reference to the recently dead singer. They were suspended for seven days "for making insensitive and inappropriate comments about the late Whitney Houston." John Kobylt later said, "We made a mistake, and we accept the station's decision. We used language that was inappropriate, and we sincerely apologize to our listeners and to the family of Ms. Houston." Many in the Los Angeles radio market came to John and Ken's defense including KROQ's Kevin and Bean who used an entire segment of their February 17, 2012 show to discuss the duo's suspension and the current overall state of political correctness within talk radio.
The duo was named one of the 100 most influential people in Southern California by the '' Los Angeles Times'' in 2006.
Similarly, Governor Jerry Brown singled out Kobylt and Chiampou, along with Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, taxpayer advocate Grover Norquist, and California Republican Party vice chair Jon Fleischman as a "legion of acceptability" in influencing Republican votes in the
California State Legislature
The California State Legislature is a bicameral state legislature consisting of a lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members; and an upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members. Both houses of the Legisla ...
.
Format
The show is generally broadcast directly from the studios of KFI, with guests usually appearing on the show via telephone. There are occasional remote broadcasts to the site of news or to various political rallies. Also, KFI news reporters come on the show and expand on stories aired in the newscasts. The 5 p.m. hour is the most listened to hour of the show and is sometimes themed.
Recurring features of the show include Chiampou's Friday movie review, where he grades one movie released that week on a 1-10 scale, with 10 being highest; the "Moist Line", which plays edited listener comments on a voice mail line; and ''Hack in a Dumpster'' which is a homage to
2014 Ukraine revolution
The Revolution of Dignity ( uk, Революція гідності, translit=Revoliutsiia hidnosti) also known as the Maidan Revolution or the Ukrainian Revolution,
in metaphorically disposing of a public figure which the hosts disagree with. Other features include ''The John & Ken Health and Science Desk'', covering medical news; ''Execution Desk'', covering news on the
death penalty
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
; and ''Naked Desk'', with news stories involving people who are nude.
One regular segment that does accept significant caller participation is ''The Hour of Rage'', where callers rant either about a topic selected by the host or do freeform rants. However, it is common for an entire show to pass without a call being taken from a listener.
Kobylt and Chiampou were active during David Westerfield's trial for the Murder of Danielle van Dam. Kobylt shouted, "Hey, Westerfield, are you in there? Did you kill Danielle?". Kobylt also tossed broccoli at "vegetable head" jurors, who were not convicting Westerfield swiftly enough in his opinion.
Political views
The hosts eschew any party labels or loyalties, and were not politically involved prior to their experience in New Jersey. Kobylt has indicated that his role is "to identify who the bad guy is and what the bad act is so that people feel it viscerally... pointing out how they were screwed in some way."
Mostly fiscally conservative on issues like taxes, they also frequently lean conservative with regard to crime.Bailey, Eric. ''State budget talks marked by secrecy''. ''Los Angeles Times''. Los Angeles, Calif.: Feb 11, 2009. pg. B.3